Sara Ganim
STATE COLLEGE — Scott Marion never thought selling $35 worth of marijuana to a college buddy might land him in state prison for more than two years.

Sentencing guidelines for that kind of crime call for probation to 30 days in county jail — with one huge exception.

If you are caught selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, state law says prosecutors can seek a two-year mandatory minimum sentence.

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September 30, 2009, Bellefonte, PA

District Justice Carmine Prestia dismissed furnishing alcohol to minors and related alcohol violations against Tau Epsilon Phi after a preliminary hearing in Centre County Central Criminal Court. The State College Police charged the fraternity with misdemeanors following a summer party at the house. The Commonwealth called an eighteen year old student, who had been cited for underage drinking and disorderly conduct after being caught urinating in bushes, to testify against the fraternity in return for favorable consideration from the District Attorney’s office. The student testified that he drank several beers at the fraternity house. The court agreed with Attorney Andrew Shubin’s argument that there was insufficient evidence linking the fraternity as a corporate entity to any criminal wrongdoing and dismissed all charges.

Attorney Andrew Shubin called the case “doomed from the beginning,” yet a Daily Collegian photographer faced misdemeanor charges for months after the October 2008 downtown State College riot.
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On Oct. 25 last year, thousands of students rushed into Beaver Canyon to celebrate Penn State’s victory over rival Ohio State.

We didn’t know it, but the First Amendment was on the line.

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July 27, 2009

PENNSYLVANIA — A photographer at Pennsylvania State University’s Daily Collegian was cleared of his remaining failure to disperse charge July 22 in a pre-trial motion after he was arrested last fall while covering a post-football-game riot.

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Sara Ganim – sganim@centredaily.com
Thursday, Jul. 23, 2009
A Daily Collegian photographer charged with inciting revelers during the October downtown State College riot has been cleared of any wrongdoing by a judge.

Michael Felletter had fought the two misdemeanor charges — filed by police who said his pictures were making the crowd act more rowdy and that he did not leave the scene when police ordered — on First Amendment grounds.

“In the U.S., we don’t arrest the press for covering major events and protests,” said Felletter’s attorney, Andy Shubin, who called the case “doomed from the beginning.”

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In the July 23, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer

The Associated Press

BELLEFONTE, Pa. – A judge dismissed the remaining misdemeanor charge against a photographer for the independent campus newspaper at Penn State in connection with an unruly fan celebration in State College.

Prosecutors had dropped five of six misdemeanors against photographer Michael Felletter earlier this year following the Oct. 25 disturbance after the Nittany Lions’ football win at Ohio State.

A sixth count, for failing to disperse, was dismissed Wednesday by a Centre County judge.

Felletter’s lawyer (Andrew Shubin, from State College, PA) said the student was just doing his job as a member of the press.

Authorities had initially charged about 20 people in connection with the disturbance, and several were charged with felony riot.

Two years ago, Antonio McIntosh, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., was led away to federal prison with a 35-year sentence for dealing crack cocaine in this city.

On Wednesday, he left federal court again, but this time with 26 years less time to serve.

McIntosh and co-conspirator Domonique Haynes, originally of Philadelphia, appealed their May 2006 convictions, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office offered to have the case returned to U.S. Middle District Court here for a hearing.

But the hearing never took place because the government presented both men with a plea offer that substantially reduced the amount of prison time.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has never fully explained why it opted to offer a plea agreement instead of conduct a hearing.

Some court sources have said the nine- and eight-year sentences the two face still are significant.  But others suggest it was a likely way to keep the process from getting complicated by the state prosecution of two former city police officers who were involved in the McIntosh-Haynes investigation and who now face unrelated corruption charges brought by a state grand jury.

Former Lt. Thomas Ungard and former Cpl. Dustin Kreitz have surfaced as targets in other appeals. But, during McIntosh’s sentencing before U.S. Senior Judge James F. McClure, defense attorney Andrew Shubin mentioned Kreitz by name as he argued that a pre-sentence report should be disregarded because it relied on findings from the jury trial during which Kreitz was a witness.

Shubin alleged the trial was tainted by misconduct, but Assistant U.S. Attorney John McCann argued there is no proof of trial misconduct by anyone, including the suspended officers.

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By Alyssa Owens

Collegian Staff Writer

Although an extensive debate between Penn State Judicial Affairs and Olivia Guevara ended last week, the motives behind her prosecution are still being questioned.

Over the past five months, Guevara, a graduate student in the department of labor, has repeatedly challenged Penn State’s decision to prosecute her for vandalism and accused the university of singling her out to squelch her anti-sweatshop activism.

The battle has grown to involve 48 professors, labor departments from other universities, labor unions, concerned students from across the country and a local attorney who said Guevara’s First Amendment rights were at risk.

The charges stem from an incident on Sept. 27, when Guevara and several other activists chalked anti-sweatshop messages on several university buildings, including Old Main. Criminal charges against Guevara were dismissed because of a lack of evidence. However, Judicial Affairs asked for damage fees and issued a seven-year citation on her academic record.

Penn State officials have maintained that Guevara’s Judicial Affairs hearing was fair and that her prosecution was solely a matter of vandalism.

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By Kristen Huth

Collegian Staff Writer

Last night, a national organization aiming to reform marijuana laws hosted its first Rally in the Valley discussion in 101 Thomas to raise awareness about legal concerns involving marijuana.

“We want to inform people about this issue and have some positive conversations about the marijuana issue,” Jason Bundy, co-president of the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said.

Bundy told about 30 people that NORML is a resource for those who need legal advice, as well as an organization that promotes legislation to reform marijuana laws.

Andrew Shubin, a criminal defense attorney, was present to give legal advice concerning marijuana laws.

Shubin explained that a school zone has much harsher consequences for felonies than any other area.

“If you are within 1,000 feet of any part of Penn State University, whether it’s the 18th hole of the golf course, a garage that Penn State owns, the high school or a playground, that’s a school zone,” he said. “That’s basically all of State College.”

The mandatory minimum sentence for possession of marijuana is two to four years in a school zone, compared to probation to one month anywhere else, Shubin said.

“That’s the difference one foot can make,” he said.

Shubin gave advice on what to do if confronted by a police officer.

“Be courteous. … The first thing you should do is assert your right to counsel,” he said. “And without your consent, an officer needs a warrant to search your house.”

A big topic of the discussion was the use of student informants in drug busts.

Sam Richards, senior lecturer in sociology, said that a petition opposing the use of student informants in drug busts

was circulated among faculty members in the early ’90s, and only about 5 percent of the faculty did not sign it.

“It’s just not the kind of campus you want to create,” he said.

Shubin said the biggest problem at Penn State is not marijuana, but rather alcohol abuse and its “collateral crimes,” such as domestic abuse and drunk driving.

Nick Drewchin (freshman-economics) said that “everyone from Graham Spanier to the middle school kids at Mount Nittany … knows that kids in the frats get wasted, and then sexual assault happens.”

Richards said one of the concerns with the legality of marijuana is that there is not a national discussion about it.

“If I asked you how much marijuana is takes to get high, no one would know,” he said. “But we could all probably agree on how many drinks it takes to get drunk.”

Bundy said the idea that no amount of marijuana is lethal could be dangerous without any guidance.

“If you know no amount is toxic, how do you set your limits?” he said.

Bundy said that marijuana laws are based on “the worst of us, not the most of us.”

“There is a difference between use and abuse,” he said, adding that the group does not promote abuse.